Status update — December 18, 2019

Maya Mountain Cacao (MMC) expects to eventually recover the balance of their 34 paying back Kiva loans. Those 34 farmers remain in the MMC network and will likely need several more crop cycles to repay their loans. MMC has been reporting repayments monthly and until May of this year they were collecting around $200 per month. However, collections have slowed in the later half of the year as farmers' cacao crops have been affected by frosty pod rot (a fungus).

Uncommon Cacao (see previous status update) has not posted new loans from MMC. They have been posting loans from another wholly owned subsidiary, Cacao Verapaz, in Guatemala. These are larger loans to farmer associations and the associations have been repaying on time.

Status update — May 24, 2018

Kiva has moved this Lending Partner to inactive status. Kiva fully expects Maya Mountain Cacao to continue to send repayments owed to Kiva lenders as long as the partner has an outstanding balance. The Kiva partnership is being transitioned from Maya Mountain Cacao to their parent company, Uncommon Cacao, who should be active shortly. By partnering with Uncommon Cacao, Kiva will be able to support a transparent, responsible cacao value-chain across many geographies. Uncommon Cacao will continue to post loans to Kiva for the smallholder cacao growers within the Maya Mountain Cacao network.

Status update — January 25, 2016

After 35 months on Kiva and 187 loans fundraised, Maya Mountain Cacao has graduated out of Kiva’s Experimental Partnership program and been given a risk rating of 0.5 stars. 

Partner description:

Maya Mountain Cacao (MMC) is a for-profit social enterprise that sources premium cacao beans from smallholder farmers in Belize. Founded in 2010, it generates income for marginalized farmers while promoting sustainable agricultural practices in the southern region.

Belize is one of the seven Caribbean countries that produces premium cacao beans, and they are highly valued for their quality and superb flavor. The country has a population of over 350,000 people of different ethnic backgrounds, but MMC works primarily with smallholder K’ekchi and Mopan Maya farming families that grow cacao in the jungle foothills of the Maya Mountain range in the Toledo District of Belize.

K’ekchi and Mopan Maya farmers who produce premium cacao beans.

The Maya consistently have the highest poverty rate, the highest unemployment and the lowest average income of any ethnic group in Belize. And MMC is the only enterprise that exports cacao beans grown in the Toledo District to the U.S. chocolate market.

Kiva financing will enable MMC to meet demand for pre-harvest financing for its farmers. The organization will provide microloans between $250 and $1,000 to help farmers buy better tools, invest in farm maintenance, and expand their land to increase their cacao yields.

A unique lending approach

MMC supports farmers by providing affordable seedlings, technical assistance, centralized fermentation equipment, organic certification and stable local and international demand. By selling their cacao as fresh fruit to MMC, farmers are only responsible for producing and harvesting their crops. This gives Maya farmers an opportunity to focus time on increasing their family’s production to a volume that brings in sustainable income.

MMC pays farmers a guaranteed fair and stable price for their cacao -- with a price floor that is above the Fair Trade premium. It does this by connecting them to chocolate companies that deeply value the work and traditions of cacao farmers. By renewing the cacao industry and providing alternatives to traditional slash-and-burn farming, it’s lifting entire villages out of poverty and preventing irreversible damage to the tropical habitat.

A Maya Mountain Cacao farmer demonstrates how cacao dries on solar dryers at the central processing house.

Maya Mountain Cacao joined Kiva through our Experimental Partnership Program, and has therefore received a lighter level of due diligence. Accordingly, loans associated with this partner carry a higher level of risk than typical Kiva loans.